Chapter 1
Danny creeps around the fountain that spews green gunk. She peers around it searching, then dashes
Towards an alleyway, this year she wouldn’t get spooked, she’d do the spooking. She creped up behind a dustpan, contorted her face into an evil leer then opened the lid yelling boo. The child inside shrieked then leaped out of the bin and ran down the street. Danny grinned. Then yelled out as someone shoved her into the bin then dropped squirming bugs into it, she screamed then scrambled out of the bin. She turned around, seeing the man who had scared her.
“Dad!!!!” Danny cried out and shoved him.
Jack grinned then reached out and ticked her. Danny squirmed, giggling, then pointed at him yelling “You promised this year you wouldn’t!”
Jack grinned wider “I have my reputation as the
pumpkin king.”
Danny turned her back on him, sulking.
“Look, I’m sorry. How about we go trick your mother together?” Said Jack, leaning towards Danny.
Then stepped back as Danny spun round, face Leering at him, shouting boo.
Jack smiled “Come on let’s go scare your mother.”
“Was I good dad?” Danny asked
“Very” Jack lied.
Danny screwed her face up, she knew her dad well enough to tell.
Jack ducked down stopping Danny with one of his very long arms. “Shhhhhh.” Jack pointed at Sally,
Who is sitting by the fountain. Danny grins, ducks low and follows her dad as he creeps up towards her mother. They both leer as best as they could, then lunge at Sally, Jack placed a spider on her shoulder and Danny yelled boo.
But Sally didn’t even blink. Jack looked confused, but Danny dived away from the fountain, Danny had seen the bucket full of insects on a piece of string when she had stood up, but Jack had been too puzzled, and now a squirming mass had fallen on him, he pulled a shocked face and quickly brushed them away.
Danny lay on the cobble stones, laughing.
“Yeah right! Reputation, Pumpkin king!”
Jack lifted up a very squirmy caterpillar then dropped it onto Danny’s face. Who batted at the caterpillar, but was too slow to stop it from crawling into her eye socket. Jack looked shocked and lunged for the bug, and pulled it away from Danny.
“Sorry! Sorry!” Jack Apologised, flicking the
caterpillar away.
Danny got up, scowling then walked away
Jack went to follow but the town mayor had walked up to him. “So, Jack, when do we round up the others?”
“Not now!” Jack pushed him away and sped away, looking for Danny.
* * *
Danny sat on the spiral hill, knees up to her chin and sighed.
Danny’s song
Why was I born like this? (Looks at left hand)
Why was I born here? (Looks around)
Why am I still here—? (Stretch word.)
Why, Why, WHY!!! (Shouts word arms shoot up.)
Why am I here?
Why do I exist?
Why Do I still breath—? (Stretch word)
Why, why, WHY? (Shouts word)
(Jack enters grave yard.)
Why do I get treated like this?
Why are they my parents?
Why do I have no purpose—? (Stretch word)
Why, Why, WHY? (Shout word)
(Jack hangs head.)
Why? What was the point!
Why? What was the point!
WHY? BECAUSE THEY WANTED!
End of Danny’s song.
Jack slowly walks towards the hill, however Danny sees him, So Danny leaps off the hill and runs towards the woods. Jack quickly calls up Zero then hurries after her. “Danny!” Jack calls out and Zero whines, but Danny, tears in eyes runs faster and deeper into the woods, soon the woodland gets too dense for Jack’s tall form. “Zero, Make sure Danny doesn't get hurt, go, Quickly!” Jack watches as Zero speeds along the trees, weaving in and out.
Danny realises Jack hasn’t followed her, “Dad?”
She checks again, looking around her in a blind panic. “Dad?!” She tries to go back, but the trees have moved into her way. “Dad?!”
She tries to find another way back then finds she is lost She walks through the forest for what seemed like days on end. Then, she spots a patch of sunlight, she grins and runs towards it, but groans as she realises it’s just
another clearing. However it looks like someone has drawn on the trees, on one, is a Tree, on another is a fat bird, on yet a different one is a colourful egg. There are many different trees with many different pictures on them. Her eyes wonder towards One particular tree, it hides in the shadow of another, bigger tree. Danny walks up to it and brushes it’s rough bark. Danny touches the picture on it, and jumps back in shock when it swings open towards her. Danny creeps
forward, looking into it. She looks back at the clearing, in time to see Zero zipping towards her, before she is sucked into the tree. Danny screams as she is sucked into the pitch blackness of oblivion...
The door in the tree swings shut on it we can clearly see a picture of a calendar with the first of January
circled.
Zero barks at the tree, Jack crawls out of the woodland, suit torn and skull muddy, his fingers have bits of leaf on them, he looks at the clearing, then at Zero, then at the Tree that Danny just entered, He lunges at the door’s knob, twisting it left then right, then he thumps the door and tries again, He leans his skull against the rough bark in despair.
“Come on Zero, Let’s just hope she doesn't do anything stupid…” Bitterly he adds “Like I did…”
He pushes away a small tree then heads back to
Halloween town…
* * *
Danny wakes up, Shakes her head then sits up giddily.
A firework goes off behind her and her eyes widen.
She turns her head around. In time to see another
firework go off. Her mouth forms an ‘O’ of surprise as the bright red flash of light flickers in the night. She stands up carefully. She watches as another firework goes off, bathing her in it’s light. She turns her hands over, examining her hands. She looks up at the firework display again.
(What’s this? Song from the original movie, changed a bit for the circumstances)
“Where am I?” (Last line of song)
Danny notices a group of people staring at the fireworks, finally a large firework gets shot up into the
Sky by a cannon. The firework explodes in a mass of colours, every colour Danny had seen in her life and more. Suddenly a figure falls from the sky, Danny gasps, no one could survive falling from that height!
The man plummets down towards the sky, when
suddenly a great fold of material flies out from his back and catches the air, then the man slowly floats down to the ground, bowing to a round of applause.
“Thank you! Thank you!” the man called out.
And a child yelled back “You rock! go Master of light!”
The crowd muttered with agreement.
Danny frowned Master of Light? What sort of name was that? And what were those flashes? Danny crept down the hill, as long as she hid her face and no one saw her left hand she’d fit in. She ducked her head low and shoved her left hand into her pocket. “Excuse me”
She mumbled, squirming through the crowd, in this light you wouldn’t tell what was bone and what was flesh. She finally found a dark corner where she could see the man. “Yes Yes, that was a real firework display. With real fireworks.” The man called over peoples heads. Danny coughed, the man’s head snapped over to where Danny stood. She froze. But the man had seen her. “Why hello!” The man worked his way over to Danny, grabbed her right hand (thank god!) And pulled her to the front of the crowd. “And who are you?”
The man asked. Danny wormed her skull into her collar It’s all an act! She realised. “Danny” she mumbled.
“Pardon, I’m sure the people at the back couldn’t hear”
“Danny” she mumbled again. The man sighed, clicked his fingers. Another man passed him a black thing with a black circle on it.
Danny shied away from it, uncertain what it was.
“Now, now! Today’s the first day of a new year! Lose your shyness! Banish the-” The man started but Danny interrupted.
“You don’t understand…” Danny’s voice was
magnified by the black object held by the man.
The man looked startled then smiled “Try me.” He touched her shoulder “let me guess!” he called out
before Danny could answer. “Your face is deformed! Or you think it’s ugly, maybe it is!”
This was too much for Danny, who wrenched her head up proud And yelled “My skull is not ugly!”
The crowd gasped at her, stunned.
The man stood mouth a-gape.
Then he grinned “Lovely mask dear, It even fooled me then! Oh, and It even responds to your face! How
wonderful!”
Danny’s face contoured into an angry shape, which made even the evilest monsters look tame, grabbed the microphone, with her left hand Then roared
“You think this is an act!?”
The man backed away, face white.
She sagged, the microphone fell from her hand.
“Even my father was shocked at me when he first saw me! Can you imagine that? And being able to rember it?!” Danny yelled raising her hands in the air.
She pointed at the man.
“So how do your family feel about you jumping out of a box, millions of miles above the ground? Do you sit with your family often? Or are you content to sit in your room all alone, looking at the plans for next year?”
Danny yelled accusing him.
Three men in suits came up onto the platform and grabbed her arms. She spun her head 180 degrees, not moving her body. She leered then and whispered “boo.” in their faces, the three men let go of her as If she was contagious. The crowd screamed and
became a huge muddle. Danny re-aligned herself then ran back towards the trees, during the chaos no one
realised she’d slipped away.
She looked around the trees then opened the door with the most failure picture on it; a pumpkin.
This time Danny threw her self into the doorway.
* * *
Danny blinked lifted her head, in time to hear the
Halloween song, traditionally sung after trick or treat.
Danny hurried to stand next to the mummy kid. She watched as, like last year, her Dad sat upon the straw horse with the pumpkin head on. It was always the same, year after year, Jack would eat flame, then jump from the horse into the green liquid.
Danny sung her line then watched as her dad rose up from the gunk. His eye-sockets widened as he saw Danny, she waved. Singing along whilst she did.
Then Jack picked up Danny and grinned at her, this wasn’t part of the plan! She’d sneaked a peek at them!
Jack sat her on the gargoyle, Jack winked then
motioned at a burning torch, so small a movement she thought she’d imagined it. She grinned, lent over
back-wards grabbing a torch behind her, then she boldly shoved it into her mouth like her dad had for all those years. She sat up again mouth full of flame, it was odd, it tickled at the roof of her mouth. Her father had just thrown a different torch away. Danny opened her mouth and blew into the dark night, aiming at a kid. Her father grinned at the crowed, mouth apart just so you could see the faintest flicker of flames. Danny belched a great glob of flame into her left hand and threw it into the crowd. Then blew what was left out through her nostrils, making several people in the crowed giggle. Her father used both of his hands to make different shapes with the flames, may people wowed, then, Jack blew the rest of his fire into Zero’s ghostly form, making him glow a bright orange.
Danny giggled and reached out to Zero. But moved her hand away just in time when suddenly Zero belched a ball of flame.
Jack bowed then placed Danny on his shoulder and stepped off of the fountain. Many people clapped.
“That was Fantastic Jack!”
“Cool!”
“That was the best Halloween yet!”
Jack lowered Danny to the floor.
“Brilliant Idea Jack! That last change of the plans was spectacular!” Two-face, the mayor called over the heads of the other monsters.
“Not at all! It’s all of you that make Halloween special go and with a bang!” Jack called out to the monsters and ghouls.
“No Jack, it was you!” A witch cried out, pointing a long bony finger at him.
“And your young daughter Jack! What was her name again…?”
“Danny” Danny said with such venom it made a black mamba look dry and withered.
The witch waved a hand in her vague direction, still looking at Jack.
“Yes, Yes, dear…” She mumbled.
A second witch wondered out of the crowd “You out shone the moon tonight Jack!”
“Out shone the moon?! He out shone the Sun!”
The first witch snapped at the second.
The two witches squabbled then attacked each other, Jack reached out to Danny, Signalling for them to sneak away, but froze as he realised Danny wasn’t there. He looked around, and above other thing’s heads, Then he remembered the venom in Danny’s voice. He turned, and, sure enough, Danny was tearing at one of the witch's hair, whilst kicking at the other’s face. Jack groaned then reached over the nearest witch’s head and softly pulled Danny away, murmuring apologies to anyone who got hit by Danny’s flailing fists. He dragged Danny away from the crowd, aware of the eyes
watching them. As soon as they got far enough away from the crowd Jack let go of Danny and turned on her, hands on hips.
“Danny, what have I told you?” Jack asked.
Danny crossed her arms and turned away.
Jack sighed, then pulled Danny around to face him.
“Danny-”
“WHAT?! So I’m supposed to sit back while you bathe in the limelight?!” Danny cruelly mimicked Jack’s voice “Not at all! It’s all of you that make Halloween special!” Danny frowned, turned away again then
muttered over her back “It was better in the tree place.”
Jack clicked his fingers “I was meant to ask…”
“What happened to me?” Danny turned back to Jack “Let’s see…” she holds up her hand, counting out what happened “I run away from this place and It’s people, I wonder around in a forest for ages, I find these really weird trees, I open one and get sucked into this place I’ve never seen before, I see these weird things that go BANG!-” She yelled the word bang “-in the sky. But I’m sure You knew all about that!” Danny walked away from Jack, Jack didn’t try to stop her, he was too busy thinking; What was that place?
* * *
Danny lay on her bed, looking at the damp ceiling of her room, She sighed, a deep down sigh, she suddenly noticed a scuffing noise from under her bed. Then, as suddenly as she noticed it, it stopped. Danny rolled over to he front then, peering under her bed she said
“Look, are you going to spook or not?”
“Awwwwww.” a voice called back.
Then a gigantic octopus crawled it’s self out from under the bed.
“You missed your chance, Out!” Danny pointed at the door of her room.
The octopus slithered out.
Danny sighed then looked under her bed again,
“All of you.”
There was a general amount of whispering, then 3 other monsters came out and trooped across the room.
Danny sighed, counted to 10 then reached under her bed. She pulled a spider-thing out from under her bed. It had big black wings 8 long spindly legs, a vampire’s head and a long snake’s tale, The creature shrugged and grinned sheepishly. Danny opened her window and It’s eyes widened, and it shrieked as Danny lobbed it out of her window. “I warned you!” She yelled after it, leaning out of her window.
A small cough came from below her.
Danny looked down, standing there was a young boy, she with-drew her head, grabbed a mask from under her bed, pulled it on, and rushed down stairs. She opened the door, but the boy had gone… She was just about to close the door, when she noticed the red petal, she bent lower and discovered a trail of them, intrigued, she followed this trail, out through the tall gates of her home, through the main square, hiding behind the fountain, on which Jack was sitting, Then through the gates towards the spiral hill, she followed the petals until she almost bumped into the boy. She looked up.
He looked very ordinary, no blemish at all.
Local? Couldn’t be… From the other town?
Possibly… He had short, spiked brown hair and bright blue eyes. Danny peered around his back, then at his legs again finally she looked at his clothes, they
weren’t too badly torn, they had no blood stains, no
insects… nothing! Danny frowned, luckily the mask hid that. The boy reached out a hand to touch the mask, Danny shied away, then stopped, the boy’s hand stopped mid-air, then it came back down to his side,
“Your that child aren’t you?” The boy asked.
Danny paused. Then asked “What do you mean?”
“Your that child with the skeleton features. Aren’t you?” the boy looked puzzled then pointed at Danny’s left hand, “unless you all have that here.”
Danny shoved her hand into her pocket, wondering why she hadn’t put a glove on.
The boy shrugged “All I’ve seen is this funky hill and the skeleton guy.” The boy took a step nearer.
Danny twitched, confused. The boy took off her mask before she could stop him, did she even try to stop him? The boy gasped, stepped backwards, dropping the mask. “It is you! Every one’s talking about you!”
Danny smiled, so, people did talk about her...
“Oh my gosh! You’re skull actually changes shape! I thought it was the light!” The boy looked so very shocked that Danny stopped smiling.
The boy shook himself “Well, I’m not exactly
perfect…”
Danny frowned, but the boy just stopped.
“Anyway, your in trouble! Deep trouble!”
“Trouble?” Danny started.
“Lots! Danny! They’re planning to kill you!”
“Whoa! Stop there! I’ve just had a thought. How did you find me?” Danny lunged at the boy and grabbed his right arm with her left.
“I-” the boy paused “-followed you to the trees. Waited for a night, I was too scared, Then I followed you through.”
Danny raised her eye-brow (If she had one.) She had noticed the pause.
“Just trust me, ok! My Dad, the man you were with on stage-”
“You’re the son of the Master of Light?”
“His name’s John...” The boy shrugged out of Danny's grip. “He’s planning to kill you,-”
Danny’s eyes widened.
“-I’m not lying! I swear! If he were to find out about this place… You’d all be for the chop!”
Danny lunged for the boy, but the boy had leapt off of the hill.
“I tried to sneak out, but my dad saw me! I’m so sorry!” The boy called back to Danny.
Danny growled. The boy had his foot jammed against the tip of the hill, stopping it from unfolding and she couldn’t jump that far.
“I suggest you tell the leader of this place of the
danger!” The boy found a plank of wood and jammed it up against the hill, which flailed about trying to loosen this annoying stick. “I’ve got to go! But please, for the love of everything don’t follow me!” and with that,
The boy started to run off.
“Wait! At least tell me your name!”
“Peter!” the boy called back.
Danny stared after the receding dot, when, with a snap the hill’s tip broke free of the plank of wood.
A pumpkin from the patch below the hill called out “Ohhh, someone’s got a boyfrie-” But it didn’t manage to finish it’s sentence before a sharp stone whistled through the air and cut the pumpkin in half with a squelch.
Danny let her arm drop as she got up. She turned to go back to the courtyard, when she spied Jack coming through the gate, What to do? Tell him? No, It’s not his business. I’ll just have to think of something, she walked past Jack murmuring “Night” to him as she walked past.
“I saw the petals…” He called back.
Danny froze.
“Who was It?”
“Someone.”
Jack grinned. Tapped where his nose ought to have been then walked to the crest of the hill, thinking.
Danny would have blushed if it was possible.
When Danny had gone Jack sighed, so, she didn’t trust him anymore… He tapped his skull,
“What to do, eh?”
Jack spun around, and saw a stone grave rumble as the stone dragon that sat on top moved.
“Your daughter doesn’t trust you any more, eh?” the stone Jaws moved out of time with the words.
“I don’t need your help.”
“They all say that…” The statue grinned, it wasn’t a nice grin.
Jack lent on it’s stone nose “What could you do?”
The statue grinned, “I could destroy the door!”
Jack frowned, then tapped the statue on the nose,
then walked out of the graveyard. “Ah, c’mon! All you have to do is help me off this grave!”
Jack shook his head, “No.”
And with that he left.
“Suit your self…” And then the statue went back to it’s long hibernation.
* * *
Sally knocked on Danny’s door.
“Go away!” came the muffled reply.
Sally poked her head round the door.
“I said– oh, Hi mum!” Danny beamed
Sally rubbed Danny’s hair then noticed the paper, It was littered all over the floor, patches of hand
writing and sketches covered every square inch of
Paper. Danny noticed Sally was looking at the paper, and Danny swept most of it under her bed with her foot.
Sally sighed, then sat next to Danny on the bed.
“Danny, me and your father are very, worried about you.”
“He sent you didn’t he.” Danny’s voice was as cold as ice.
Sally stood up and went to leave the room but Danny stood up and hugged her,
“All I want is an apology, a proper apology.” Danny let go of her mother then lay back down on her bed.
Sally crept out of Danny's room, closing the door
behind her.
Jack walked up the spiral staircase and Sally pointed at Danny’s door. “I suggest you talk to her.” Then Sally kissed him and walked down the stairs.
Jack slowly opened Danny’s door and poked his head around the corner. He watched as Danny, head under her bed, pulled out great wads of paper, Jack with-drew his head, puzzled, what was she doing? Then it clicked, the boy had talked about an attack…
Was he serious?
Jack opened Danny’s door and coughed politely, Danny’s head snapped up, and she bashed her head on the underside of her bed with a loud Thunk.
Jack winced, as Danny collapsed on the floor, limp.
Jack carefully pulled Danny out from under the bed. There was a slight dent on the back of her skull. Jack placed Danny on her bed. He picked up a scrap of
Paper there were 2 stars on it and a catapult, Jack looked at another piece, 7 stars and a very complex idea. Jack realised that they were defence ideas the higher the amount of stars on it the better the idea. Jack picked up Danny’s pen, If he was careful… He looked at Danny, but should he…
He could draw another idea, and rate it very highly, it seemed that the highest star mark was 10.
Jack sighed then sat next to Danny, putting the scraps of paper down and the pen back in it’s holder.
Danny moved, just a little shudder, And she saw Jack,
She sat up quickly but Jack lowered her back down again. “You’ll get dizzy.” he explained, then he picked up the nearest idea “This is a nice one.”
Danny groaned then noticed which one it was.
“Dad! That’s rated 1 star! It’s a terrible idea!”
Jack looked faintly puzzled at the paper.
“Really? I thought flicking mud at them would actually work…”
Danny giggled. And Jack smiled.
“What happened?” Danny asked, fighting the giggles.
“You bashed your head.” Jack scratched his skull “You’ve now got a nice little dent in the back of your skull.”
Danny rubbed the back of her skull until she found the dent. She shuddered at the size of it.
Danny smiled grimly “At least I know now.”
Jack looked puzzled so she explained “I didn’t know If I was alive or dead.” Danny paused then continued “However I now have a more pressing question.”
Jack tilted his head.
“Am I the living dead or just half dead?”
Jack smiled “I guess you’ll never find out.”
Jack stood up and was at the door to Danny’s room when…
“Dad…”
Jack looked back.
“I need a little help with the plans…” Danny grinned.
=Sorry it was so long...
can you guys forgive me?=
